I know there are people with real mental and emotional disabilities - and that the professions of psychology, psychiatry, and various types of behavioral therapy have their legitimate place….
But…. Having said that, I get the feeling 98% of it is not needed, not legitimate, and only exists to make money by taking advantage of weak people’s fears, delusions and vanities.
My wife and I went to a “marriage counseling” group when we first got married - nothing was wrong but people were advising us to learn some communication skills that would supposedly be an investment that would pay off.
There was loads of psycho babble and encouraging people to speak, unfiltered, while others listened ‘without judgement’.. it was the closest to ‘therapy’ we ever got - and it was awful. We argued on the way home - and we had rarely argued before. It’s like these group sessions were designed to tear down healthy boundaries and provoke anger where there was none before. They encouraged you to say hurtful things that you would otherwise never dream of saying and could never be unsaid.
We quit after a few weeks and never looked back. For 35 years since we have been happy and get along great. Sure, we start to get into stupid arguments about whose fault something was - who is criticizing or feeling criticized.. but we hit the brakes and try to start the conversation over.. sometimes we laugh about how dumb that marriage counseling group from 35 years ago was..
These mental patients mostly need to STFU and keep busy with healthy activities like a vegetable garden or restore an antique car. If they REALLY have an abusive boss or spouse - leave.
I remember all the ‘encounter session’ crap from the 1970s.
I think it’s one of the things that contributed to the culture we have now where so many people don’t recognize any boundaries and assume that their every concern should be aired publicly and everyone should listen.